Rural men and women in many areas have long been involved in
the conservation and cultivation of trees on agricultural lands and forested
areas. Until recently, there has been a tendency to discount these indigenous
activities. The main focus of forestry efforts has been on management of trees
for environmental protection or for industrial timber production. The shift in
emphasis toward forestry in partnership with rural people is, therefore, a
significant departure from earlier perceptions, policies and
practices.

In order to set present community forestry activities, both
communally and privately organized, within the context of local spontaneous tree
growing, it is necessary to review a number of indigenous tree management and
conservation strategies. The relationship between rural people and the trees in
their environment is generally complex. Many of the approaches used have been
developed over long periods of time. Often they have emerged as responses to
increasing, though sometimes subtle, pressures on the local environment. Their
underlying function has been to ensure that locally-valued tree species continue
to be available to rural people.

The extent to which people cultivate and manage trees varies
throughout the non-industrial areas of the world. It depends largely on
characteristics of local ecology, patterns of agricultural land-use, cultural
traditions, local demands for wood and wood products, tenure rights and economic
pressures.

In some societies, tree cultivation and management is a major
feature of the way of life; in others, it has assumed a peripheral or even a
negligible role. Depending on the intensity of the management approach,
different strategies will be able to withstand more environmental stress than
others. Environmental degradation and the depletion of tree cover is sometimes
symptomatic of a lack of comprehensive traditional tree and environmental
management systems. In many cases, it has been the result of the breakdown of
traditional systems because of intense and interracting pressures.

Introduced innovations may be required where strong indigenous
traditions do not exist. In heavily forested areas, and in some regions of the
world where alternative resource-use strategies have been pursued, tree
conservation and regeneration strategies may be largely absent. Similarly,
pressures of poverty, population growth and insecure tenurial rights - among
other factors - have sometimes precluded the development or retention of
indigenous strategies.

Ultimately, rural tree planting programmes should be based on
understanding any traditional or existing tree cultivation or management systems
which these programmes may supplement, as well as on understanding what has made
the introduction of new methods of rural tree management necessary in the first
place.

1.1 The Importance of
Trees

The worlds forests have an undisputed and vital role in
sustaining natural and human environments. They protect watersheds, provide
habitats for wildlife and help to stabilize otherwise fragile ecosystems. They
provide many essential products for rural and urban dwellers. They also play an
economic role, with the commercial extraction of timber and pulpwood producing
significant amounts of national income and foreign exchange in a number of
countries.

In addition, forests provide a home and a means of livelihood
for large numbers of people, both traditional forest dwellers and those who find
employment in extracting and harvesting commercial forest products. Forests also
play a vital role in agricultural production. Although shifting cultivation has
been a cause of the deterioration of much forested land, when it is practiced in
an environmentally sustainable way, the natural process of regrowth and
regeneration of the forest restores the fertility of fallow land.

Although not as well documented, the role trees play outside
established forested areas and reserves is also critical. Trees, dotted about
the rural landscape, around houses, along field boundaries and roadsides, and in
communal grazing areas, are seldom recorded in the formal statistics of forested
lands. But for the majority of the rural population, living away from the
immediate vicinity of forested lands, these trees have an even more significant
role than the forests themselves. Therefore, policies and programmes intended to
improve access to wood resources and other tree products must be based on a
recognition that the trees which will be most useful to these rural people may
not be found growing in the forests, but in their own backyards, on
smallholdings and on communally held lands.

In farmlands and grazing areas, trees also play a vital
environmental role. They act as windbreaks, protecting crops from wind damage
and the soil from erosion. Their shade helps to reduce the temperature of the
soil. Tree litter slows down the run-off of rain, thereby protecting the soil
and increasing the infiltration of water so that groundwater stores are
replenished. Trees also redistribute nutrients, drawing essential minerals from
the subsoil and making them accessible, through their leaf-fall, to other
plants. In many countries, tree litter is collected in large quantities for
composting and mulching in order to maintain soil fertility.

Trees have a valuable social function. They provide shade for
people and animals in hot climates, and are sometimes a focal point for family
and community gatherings and activities. There are many places where trees are
grown and protected for their shade and beauty; sometimes they are treated as
sacred.

1.2 Tree Products

Wood is the most widely used household fuel in
non-industrialized areas of the world where supplying energy, in fact,
constitutes the greatest demand for wood, far exceeding that of commercial
timber. Wood is by far the most important energy source in many countries,
accounting for up to 90 percent of the total fuel used in some of the poorest.
In many countries, virtually every rural family uses it for at least some
cooking and food processing and for heating. In many cities, charcoal and wood
remain the predominant cooking fuels. Some industrial processes such as tobacco
and tea curing, brick firing and beer brewing often rely entirely on wood for
process heat. Restaurants, tea shops, bakeries and other commercial enterprises
add to these demands.

However, the dominant role of wood in rural energy supplies
should not be allowed to obscure the fact that other traditional fuels are often
important. Use of agricultural residues and animal dung is extremely widespread,
though since it is poorly understood it is not given the attention it deserves.
The result has sometimes been that the case for fuelwood programmes has been
overstated because the contribution that other traditional fuels make has not
been taken fully into account.

The dominance of woodfuel demand in quantitative terms has
also tended to obscure the vital importance of other tree products to rural
people. Animal fodder is perhaps one of the most significant of these,
especially at certain times of the year when grass and other feed sources are
unavailable. In arid areas, trees often provide regular supplies of
fodder in the form of edible seed pods and leaves. During times of drought,
these become especially important sources of animal feed.

A wide range of human foods are also obtained from trees and
from forested areas. Some of these are extremely important in preserving the
nutritional balance in traditional diets. They include edible leaves and pods,
roots, fruits, nuts, honey, insects, and game. Trees may be a source of food
condiments, such as spices, and sap from some trees is used to make wine.
Mushrooms and other forest funghi are also collected for certain types of
dishes.

Trees produce a large number of what are often referred to as
minor forest products. The importance of these products should not
be underestimated. They make a vital contribution to the needs and general
living patterns of large numbers of rural people.

Mushrooms can grow on trees

Many communities rely on trees to provide fibre to make ropes,
mats, baskets, snares, coverings, woven goods and even musical instrument
strings. Trees are an important source of many herbal remedies and traditional
medicines. Tannins and dyes extracted from tree bark and seed pods are used to
cure leather and colour fabrics. Oil from the seeds of certain trees can be used
as a substitute for paraffin in hurricane lamps. The leaves and twigs of other
trees have good insect repellant qualities, are used to stun fish or serve as
natural livestock dewormers. Some resins can be used as glues.

Agricultural implements, bullock carts and boats are
often crafted out of wood, and certain varieties of wood are highly-valued for
their tool-making qualities. The trunks of some trees are hollowed out for water
storage. African woods are used to make camel bells.

Trees also supply a variety of commercial construction
materials. Building poles, for example, are widely needed for a variety of
purposes. In rural areas, they are used in construction of many traditional
types of dwellings; in cities, poles are used by the poor in constructing
low-cost housing, and larger poles are extensively used for scaffolding and for
props by the building industry.

Harvesting and distribution of these tree products is an
important income-generating activity in many areas. Charcoal production and
fuelwood vending, for instance, are a vital source of income for many poorer
rural households. Other jobs are generated by pitsawing, operation of sawmills,
woodworking, tree farming, and the gathering and selling of fruits, timber,
resins, gums and other forest products both for cottage industries and for
larger scale commercial concerns. The significance of small-scale rural
enterprises which process forest materials is gradually becoming better
documented. In a recent survey, FAO has shown that such enterprises are often
one of the largest sources of off-farm employment and income. Further work is
now in progress to determine the key characteristics of such enterprises and to
formulate ways to enhance their economic contribution (FAO, 1985a).

The role of trees in the patterns of rural living is thus both
complex and diverse. Focusing on one aspect, even such a major one as fuelwood,
at the expense of others can be gravely misleading. So much of the fabric of
rural domestic and farming life relies on trees that any diagnosis of the
problems arising from the depletion of tree cover which does not take into
account the full complexity of this dependence is likely to be
inadequate.

1.3 The Role of Tree Management and
Cultivation

Almost everywhere, a certain standing stock of different types
of trees, whether deliberately cultivated or allowed to grow naturally, has been
recognized as necessary by farming communities. Even in nomadic pastoralist
societies, trees have traditionally played a variety of essential roles. Though
pastoralists may rarely have planted trees, their traditional way of life was
such that they did not usually deplete the supply in the territories over which
they ranged with their flocks. Indeed, the grazing animals helped maintain the
tree base by dispersing tree seeds over wide areas.

The many products and benefits which rural people derive from
trees reflect detailed and sophisticated knowledge about their immediate
environment. The assumption that traditional communities are unaware of the
benefits provided by trees, and therefore need to be educated about the
immediate consequences of the depletion of tree cover, is rarely
accurate.

Local impacts such as the loss of fodder, shade, fruit, and
other benefits are obvious. Although rural populations may not have a clear
understanding or perception of the long term consequences of deforestation -
particularly downstream consequences - their ability to name and distinguish a
large number of species and to describe their characteristics demonstrates
awareness of trees and the role they play in their own lives.

In some cases, rural silvicultural systems are highly
sophisticated with considerable numbers of trees planted and well-developed
techniques used for managing and harvesting them. Elsewhere, managing tree
resources is more passive and relies on conservation and natural regeneration.
Stability of the system rests on the fact that population pressures are low and
that the forests capacity for regeneration is great enough to offset any
damage done by the utilisation practices of rural people.

Where traditional societies have remained stable, they have
generally been able to maintain the productive role of the tree resources on
which they depend. Though traditional tree management strategies might slow or
even stop the processes of environmental deterioration, the primary focus has
usually been on the utility value of trees for household or community use. Some
practices have resulted in developing elaborate agroforestry systems, such as
home gardens, which have incorporated indigenous trees into sustainable
production systems. Others have been more modest in scope and effect, based on
the desire to retain at least some valued trees conveniently near the
household.

1.4 Traditions of Tree Protection
and Management

Restricting access to trees is one means by which individuals,
households or kinship groups may assert exclusive rights to them. The use of the
baobab in southern Niger, for instance, is defined by very old traditions which
specify strict proprietary rights. In Sudan, palm trees may be subject to a
complex system of fractional ownership defined by traditional laws of
inheritance. In Western Sumatra, the decision to cut a valuable tree is made by
the extended family (Fortmann, 1984).

Some communities have long protected specific trees because
they provided a focal point for the community, occasionally because of their
religious significance. In Nepal, formal management systems were developed by
some communities over a period of centuries. These systems defined specific
users rights to valued products from trees growing on common lands. The
systems were as much a response to distributional demands as they were to
growing scarcities. As some of the older systems broke down, visible recent
increases in the rate of forest destruction prompted some communities to
establish new systems (Campbell and Bhattarai, 1983).

Other groups of people with common interests in tree resources
have also been responsive to the threat of growing scarcities. In the highlands
of Guatemala, professional woodworkers have been a particularly strong force in
pushing for tree conservation efforts. The Chipko Movement in the Himalayan
region of India is a communal effort with active leadership from women, which
has relied on the Gandhian technique of non-violence to protect trees from
destruction by commercial timber concerns (Agarwal & Anand, 1982).

The Karen people of Thailand have customarily tried to contain
swidden plot fires (Kunstadter, etal., 1982). Among particular
tribal groups in Kenya, honey collectors are obliged to prevent fires when
smoking out bees (Leakey, 1977); and in some areas of India, cutting down a tree
may be considered unethical, especially if it yields products which are of use
to the community. Among the Bora Indians of the Peruvian Amazon, there is a
recognition that their system of shifting cultivation must be managed in a way
which both reduces soil erosion and favours particular trees in secondary
vegetation (Deneven, etal., 1984).

In addition to active tree conservation efforts, some local
land management strategies have consciously matched demands on the land with its
carrying capacity. In these areas, it is clearly recognized that overgrazing
results in environmental degradation; the size and grazing patterns of livestock
herds are therefore kept within environmentally acceptable limits.

Other strategies for managing tree resources have involved
protecting and cultivating naturally germinating seedlings. Cultivators may
leave certain desirable tree seedlings when weeding and even build barriers
around them as a protection against grazing livestock. In parts of southern
Mexico, farmers tolerate and protect indigenous leguminous trees, such as
Prosopis, which provide edible pods, shade and enhance soil fertility
(Wilken, 1978). Cultivators in southern Nigeria recognize the superiority of
certain species in restoring soil fertility to fallow plots and encourage them
to dominate the bush (Getahun etal., 1982).

A recently emerging management strategy has been to restrict
peoples access to trees previously available to them. This approach is
usually associated with changes in systems of land tenure and may be a response
to worsening wood scarcities. In central Kenya, the collection of wood or of
other products from trees growing on private lands has increasingly required the
permission of the property owner, although until recently, trees and their
products have been free goods (Brokensha and Riley, 1978).

1.5 Coppicing and
Pollarding

Coppicing and pollarding are techniques which can be used in
managing certain types of trees. Coppicing involves cutting the tree down to its
stump and allowing it to regrow; it normally sends up a number of shoots instead
of the original single stem. Pollarding involves cutting off the crown of the
tree, leaving it to send out new branches from the top of the remaining stem;
this also has the advantage that the new shoots are high and therefore more apt
to be protected from animal and fire damage. Vertical pollarding is the close
pruning of branches along the stem. Regrowth after coppicing and pollarding is
vigorous because the trees root system has already been well
established.

A variety of different pollarding, coppicing and pruning
techniques have been reported in many parts of the world, for instance in
Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, the Philippines and Rajasthan, India (Douglas, 1981;
Wiersum and Veer, 1983; Ben Salem and Tran van Nao, 1981).

It has been reported that in the highlands of Kenya the
pollarding of Grevillia growing on agricultural lands is common. Intense
pollarding of these trees may be carried out 15 or 20 times over a period of 50
years. The trunk will continue to widen, and the stem will increase in height
unless this is deliberately prevented by pruning at the top. Whenever the farmer
decides that it is large enough or that he needs the money, the trunk is felled
and is sold for timber (Poulsen, 1983).

What these techniques all have in common is that they permit a
sustained yield of wood or fodder over a long period of time. The total lifetime
contribution of a tree which is used in this way can be considerably greater
than the volume it will produce if it is simply allowed to grow and is then
felled.

The fact that coppicing and pollarding techniques are widely
employed by farmers has often been overlooked. In some areas, however, it is
clear that their use enables an overwhelming proportion of the fuelwood or
timber needed by households to be obtained on a sustainable basis from trees
growing on agricultural land. This has important implications for the design of
programmes to maintain increased fuelwood supplies.

1.6 Traditions of Tree Planting and
Cultivation

In many countries, rural people traditionally plant trees for
a multiplicity of household uses. In Bangladesh, one of the most densely
populated of all countries, it was found in 1983 that on average each household
had planted or naturally regenerated 68 trees, of which 16 had been established
in the previous year (Byron, 1984). In the area of Fatick, Senegal, it has been
found that virtually all households had planted trees.

In Panama, fruit trees are planted on almost every small farm
(Jones, 1982b). Nearly half of the farmers interviewed in the Valle Occidental
region of Costa Rica said that they had planted trees as windbreaks (Gewald and
Ugalde, 1981). In Peru, spontaneous private tree plantings account for around 30
percent of all trees planted, even though the government only sponsors
large-scale reforestation. A survey in the hill area of Nepal showed that on the
average each household owned 28 trees, around a third of which had been planted
and cultivated (Campbell and Bhattarai, 1983). Of rural households in the
Kakamega District of Kenya, nearly 40 percent maintain small nurseries and
nearly 80 percent have planted trees on their land (van Gelder and Kerkhof,
1984).

Perhaps surprisingly, there are few reported cases where rural
people have spontaneously planted trees specifically for fuelwood, except where
they intend to sell it. In Kenya, for example, it has been found that people
plant trees for fruit, to provide shade or ornament, to create windbreaks, or to
mark out boundaries (Brokensha, et al., 1983).

In Malawi, large numbers of farmers plant trees, mainly for
poles to be used by the family. Only 15 percent of the people interviewed in a
study of tree planting practices planted trees for fuelwood (Energy Studies
Unit, 1983). In spite of heavy demands for rural energy supplies, Indians living
on Bolivias Titicaca plateau felt that trees were too valuable to be used
as fuel; they used them mainly for house posts and for other objects of material
culture (Barre, 1948).

Although trees are seldom planted specifically for fuelwood,
there is still an awareness that they will help to supplement available energy
supplies for the household. Trees which are planted for use as timber or as
construction poles, for instance, must be trimmed in order to make sure that
they grow straight; fruit trees must be pruned occasionally if they are to
produce better quality fruit. These cuttings can be used as fuel. Building poles
which have been replaced at the end of their useful life are also used as
fuel.

In a few areas, however, there are established traditions that
involve the planting of fuelwood for commercial markets. Around the Indian city
of Madras, casuarina plantations were originally established in the late 19th
century to provide wood for the railways, but were used for household energy
when the railways were converted to coal. During the Second World War, when
acute fuelwood shortages developed, local farmers seized the opportunity to
plant trees for the urban fuelwood market. The practice still continues, and
similar plantations also exist around other South Indian cities. In several
areas of Java, farmers have responded to increased commercial fuelwood demands
by planting large areas of Calliandra (National Research Council,
1983).

Trees have also been cultivated to provide numerous products
for other specific markets. Tree products such as gum arabic, rubber, coconut,
dates, palm oil, coffee and tea are vitally important elements in the economies
of many developing countries. Cultivation of these trees is not confined to
large plantations, as they also provide cash incomes and a means of livelihood
for large numbers of smallholders and limited resource farmers.

Commercial timber species are also cultivated by farmers. For
many years the match-making industry in southern India has been based largely on
smallholder tree growing. Some companies distribute free seedlings to ensure a
steady future supply of wood. Sometimes trees are seen as a method of long-term
insurance. In parts of Latin America, it is common for farmers to plant a few
trees around their dwellings to be cut and sold for timber when money is needed.
In Turkey, trees are traditionally planted to celebrate the birth of a female
child as a kind of down payment on her wedding.

1.7 Traditional Agroforestry
Systems

In many areas, rural people have combined tree growing with a
variety of agricultural and pastoral activities on the same plot of land (Combe
and Budowski, 1979; Lundgren, 1982; Nair, 1984; Weber and Hoskins, 1983). In
general, the most widespread benefit from this type of systematic
tree-pasturage-crop combination is the soil enriching effect of the
trees.

An additional benefit is obtained from the protection against
erosion. The total productivity of the land is also increased by the fact that
these systems permit a supplementary or complementary use of different layers of
the soil and of the space exposed to sunlight above the surface (Arnold,
1983).

The types of practices and their productive outputs vary
widely. Cultivators in arid zones of Rajasthan, India, intercrop fodder and
grain crops with Prosopis cineraria. In the case of the failure of their
other crops, Prosopis becomes a main source of fodder; leaves and seed
pods are stored for livestock in anticipation of lean periods. The wood is used
for charcoal and fuelwood and for making agricultural implements (Paroda and
Muthana, 1981).

Cordia alliodora is used as a canopy tree over coffee
and cacao in the humid lowlands of tropical America. Its predominance is so
great that it has been estimated to be the third most widely grown tree in some
areas, even though it is not recorded in any statistics of tree plantations
(Budowski, 1983). In much of the Sahel, naturally germinating Acacia
albida is allowed to grow in fields in order to improve the soils (Weber and
Hoskins, 1983).

Where population densities are low and land is abundant,
fallow periods can be long enough to allow shifting cultivators to practise a
successful type of agroforestry. By leaving some trees in swidden plots and
encouraging the growth of soil-enriching trees and plants, some shifting
cultivators have played a direct role in maintaining local tree cover and
speeding up the fallowing process. Among Lua cultivators in Thailand, 84
varieties of plants and trees were found in swidden plots, including 70 that
provided food and 13 species with medicinal uses (Kunstadter, 1983). Swiddeners
in Sumatra leave fruit trees and hiving trees for bees (Pelzer, 1948). Shifting
cultivators in the Peruvian Amazon have been found to favour certain
commercially valuable timber species in fallow plots (particularly cedar) in
anticipation of substantial cash returns for their children (Deneven, etal., 1984).

Among the most elaborate systems of indigenous agroforestry
are the home gardens of Southeast Asia, Latin America and
Africa.

These gardens usually have a multi-layered mixture of a large
number of food, fodder and wood producing species grown in close association.
They are commonly grown in small plots located close to individual dwellings and
are very carefully tended; frequently, they are also used for keeping poultry
and small animals. Basically, home gardens imitate or recreate the multistoreyed
structure and species diversity of forests; this allows a simultaneous
combination of perennial and annual crops in a small area.

The diversity of species which are grown in home gardens
results in a wide range of products. Because the crops have different biological
cycles, a household is usually able to harvest some produce on a daily basis,
even if in small amounts. On plots as small as a tenth of a hectare in Central
America, perhaps 25 or more varieties of food plants and trees have been found,
including coconuts, papaya, bananas and coffee (Wilken, 1978). A study of home
gardens in Indonesia, which cover around 20 percent of the arable land on the
island of Java, revealed 37 species of fruit trees, 11 species of food-producing
plants, 12 medicinal species, 21 herb species, 18 vegetable species, 45 species
of decorative plants and 47 species of plants used for fuelwood and for
construction - all growing at a single site (Wiersum, 1984; Atmosoedaryo and
Wijayakusumah, 1979).

A number of swamp or moist-land cultivation systems
incorporating trees have much in common with home gardens. The chinampas
system has been used in parts of Mexico for hundreds of years. Raised platforms
are constructed, and sediments from the bottom of swamps or from specially
constructed reservoirs are used to grow a wide variety of annual and perennial
crops. Fruit and other trees which provide shade, support for vines and other
products are planted along the edges of the platforms or are interspersed with
plants growing on the platforms themselves (Gliessman, etal.,
1981). A similar practice is found in the deltaic plains of Bangladesh where
villages rest on groups of mounds as protection against seasonal flooding.
Multistoreyed plants, shrubs, bamboos, palms and other trees are grown in these
fertile alluvial soils (Douglas, 1981).

On the lower Tana River in Kenya, farmers plant a number of
plots with different annual and perennial crops in order to minimize their
environmental risk. Although a few plots might fail during a given planting
season, because of the different agro-ecological conditions in each plot and the
variety of crop demands, the likelihood of total crop failure is minimized.
Usually, plots are set aside specifically for fruit, fuelwood and local
construction materials.

Agroforestry systems have often developed in areas of high
population density as a response to land shortage. If, however, landholdings
become too small as a result of demographic, economic or political pressures,
the limits of adaptability of the system may be reached and short-term solutions
adopted. Trees which had been grown in a complementary relationship with other
crops may be uprooted in order to make room for the crops necessary for
subsistence. It has been found that in areas where average landholding sizes
have substantially decreased, farmers often revert to the production of just a
few staple crops such as cassava (Wiersum, 1984).

1.8 Tree Management Practices in
Perspective

Traditional strategies for managing tree resources are dynamic
by nature. They have developed as responses to particular situations, reflecting
a variety of cultural, social, economic, political, ecological and demographic
factors. Where they have survived successfully, they have often been able to
accomodate the introduction of new agricultural crops, the growth of
populations, the expansion and contraction of market opportunities for
particular crops and other factors.

However, the fact that rural people have, in the past, been
able to manage their tree resources effectively does not necessarily mean that
they can continue to do so. Increasing economic, demographic and social
pressures have contributed to the breakdown of traditional tree management
practices in many areas. The more passive systems which rely principally on the
natural regenerative capacity of forests and woodlands have been particularly
vulnerable; in some areas they have been completely overwhelmed.

In order to understand the context for the successful
introduction of rural forestry innovations, it is necessary to understand why
people are constrained from planting and managing adequate numbers of trees in
the first place. Equally and perhaps more important is an understanding of why
natural forests and trees growing on and around farmlands, which formerly were
able to meet the diverse tree-based needs of rural people, are no longer able to
do so.

Table 1 Some examples of prominent agroforestry systems and
practices in the developing countries